MPH620 Environmental Determinants of Health (3 cr.)

This course examines how urban and rural environmental factors, including social, physical, and chemical, are examined as determinants of health, with an emphasis on current topics related to national issues and laws and strategies used to reduce or eliminate health threats and provide health equity.

Upon completion of the course, students are expected to be able to do the following:

1. Relate key concepts and strategies of environmental sciences to public health practice in various situations.
2. Explain an ecological perspective on the connections among human health, animal health, and ecosystem health (e.g., One Health)
3. Identify contributing factors, such as biological susceptibility, social, political, and economic determinants of health, to individual and population vulnerability, health, and health inequity.
4. Analyze possible impacts of a range of environmental factors, including changes in demographics, economics, energy demand, climate, and pollution, on human health and food and water security.
5. Articulate roles, policies, and regulations of agencies and institution involved in regulating and mitigating environmental and occupational risks.
6. Connect the concepts of equity, justice, and sustainability to proposed health and environment solutions.
7. Identify opportunities for and barriers to sustainable changes to promote health, well-being, and equity.